From the fan-film guidelines to Rihanna, and Beyond — My take on all those Trek headlines, in one fell swoop

 
Wow. I picked the wrong week to go off-the-grid into bad wi-fi back home in Soonerland...!

I have so much to get done with "5-0 Fever" con summer and the Trek tour bearing down, plus a new On Speaker archival CD edition to get out ... and a nice website redesign for Trekland, finally, and Portal 47 both in the works...

But I have to say a few things about the crazy going down in Trekland the last few days—starting with the fan film guidelines came out the day I traveled to SoonerCon. (Of course. Oh, and the reaction.)
 
So take an extra 4.7 minutes and I'll wrap it all up for now in one subspace blast and say...

REALLY, Trekland? So much hate and trolling and boycotting...and, right NOW?

Take a breath and step back a sec. Let's put it on the main viewer, shall we?

It's July, 2016. We have a Star Trek feature film that is not only looking more like Star Trek to the hardcore than its two priors... but an exciting episodic series under an award-winning Trek vet with a mix of both Trek alumni and newer voices ...on a platform that will not be ruled by ratings numbers or even note-popping censors ... and, in Rihanna's "Sledgehammer," a Bond-like music hit and video mix from an actual fangirl superstar that will cross generations, continents and media to bring all-new eyeballs to all things movie-Trek and start the pipeline of fresh cadets and warriors and drones all over again.

Rihanna's "Sledgehammer" video w alt-Enterprise: Anyone else see a "The Doomsday Machine" homage here?

PLUS an awesome 50th anniversary that *is* living up to far more than just party hype—with major conventions around the globe, concerts and museum /science tours and the return of the 1960s original 11-footer Big E to its rightful place of inspiring honor in the Smithsonian, complete with a highly researched paint and detail restoration. I just missed seeing the 1701 in 1976, saw it in 1986, was disappointed in 1992... and can't wait to glimpse her return to glory in a couple weeks, right before Shore Leave.

And this is all grabbing mainstream media attention ...smack in the middle of the Big Bang Theory Era. That's what they used to call "synergy."

How people can be poking holes in all that positive, franchise-refreshing force for good is just beyond me. Really. But hey, don't misunderstand: I'm not saying go vanilla—I'm just saying go smart.

What I really refuse to do is get too sucked into the time and negativity sink over the Axanar lawsuit and all the tangent spinoffs from it—while still avoiding any "deer in the headlights" blindsiding.  While you might be feeling a bit down that the Golden Age of Fan Films seems to be over, let me just suggest that it might simply be ...evolving. For I remember all the prior times "Paramount" was decried by fans— from the marketing study and boycott over Spock's death threatened for The Wrath of Khan, to the upset over the "new" upstart TNG without Kirk/Spock/McCoy... and the yell over every new iteration of series to come. And somehow, it all came out in the end just fine. I even hear Star Trek AND its fandom hung around and pressed on.

Look, my low-key friend John van Citters of CBS licensing is now an unlikely Internet star front-and-center over the "fan film guidelines" (thanks to Jordan Hoffman's new official podcast Engage)—but that's the same JVC who used to point out to me years ago, at the clamor for embracing such "rules," how "a Lucasfilms model of 5-minute festival entries would never fly with Trek fans so let's just leave it in the gray area to avoid getting those lawyers involved"--the guys who care less about promotion and brand-building, and more about fiduciary duty and legal precedent. As is their oath. 

That's how I know what a huge leap these guidelines were, for the corporate machinery to agree to as much as they did—even as, to some fans, that 15/30-minute limit may seem restrictive...which is inevitable. There will be a bit of customizing in reaction, on a case-by-case basis ... but look, guys: For nearly two years, I've been worried. I mean, I've been soooo proud to have acted in, and remain a part of the think thank, for Continues; I appeared in New Voyages early on, and have supported Starbase Studios back home in OKC plus any other project that asked for it, on principal.  And yet, sadly, the boom does seem unsustainable in some ways: Today's zooming crowdfunding and temptations mean it was increasingly likely this ever-more-overloaded plane was going to have a rough landing on the choppy sea of expectations sometime— and becoming more apparent every month to many of us.


And face it: As I've said for a couple years now, I was also expecting a lot of the fan-film fire to go out—by fan producers, if not backers and attention spans in general—once a Trek series got going again, sucking all the air out of the room with new canon content to follow and fathom. That's right around the corner, now.

Question is, when and where and how rough would that landing be, who'd take charge in the crisis (if anyone), and who would get hurt in the crash? And would the "owner" CBS/Paramount get blamed, no matter what?

The post-guidelines world will not be this way forever—just ask the website owners who freely post scene clip frames today, unlike in 1996 when C&D's by Paramount went out as frame-grabbing exploded ... or the "official" editors like me four years later who could not mention actors' non-Trek crossover projects in depth—until we could. (Professor X in a Trek mag, anyone?) Or the idea of limiting later-generation Trek cast and crew to only licensed conventions (ca 2001).

The truth is, things in any pop culture franchise "poppish" enough to be alive are always the edgiest on the cutting edge—the fun frontier where no attorneys or rights-protectors have gone before. Until everyone does go there, at least, and things settle down....and then start up again in another paradigm. That's just the world we live it. It's unsettled, but it's ever-fresh: And it's the price you pay for having an incredibly attractive, thought-provoking little space show that keeps attracting new fans, new iterations, new business ...and refuses to die after 50 years.

The other truth is this: For all the meme meltdowns online past and present, fan film fandom... con-going regulars  ....hell, all Internet Trek fandom... are just a drop in the bucket among all the armchair fans out there. You know: the folks who watch the shows, buy the books and toys, and raise their kids with Trek?

And now... a boycott? Really? Aside from the basic math, consider the timing.

Because Vulcan's Forge was never like this: We are FINALLY emerging from wandering the Trek desert of the last 12 years, and have now a transition time from what *was* to what *is*—whether it's fan film parameters or a hit music/movie video or a for-pay streaming platform in the fast-changing media landscape. Same as 1979, 1982, 1987, 2001 ...and 2006.

Thank the Prophets it's happened again. It means we're still alive... and that a 100th anniversary Trektennial in 2066 is a pretty sure bet.

Oh—and beyond our selfish fun? Star Trek remains a good bet for a wracked world that could really use some hope and intelligent futurism in its free time right about now. 

Just like in 1966.

CBS/Paramount v Axanar? Some broad thoughts

So, everyone has been buzzing about the joint CBS/Paramount lawsuit filed Dec. 29 against Alec Peters and the "Axanar Works" "fan film" crowdfunded movie. There's been no similar action made against any other fan film that we have heard of—not Star Trek Continues, Farragut, Renegades or New Voyages/Phase II, at least. All of whom, and several more, I've been happy to help promote in the name of a passion fix for fans over this decade-long fallow time for pro Trek—ever since the "gray area" for them to exist as no-income projects was hashed out by New Voyages back in 2004.

But no, this legal action is specific. 

I'm not going to wade into the mushrooming detail points or the back-and-forth here—that's been all over the Interwebs and, five days on, cooler heads are starting to prevail...at least in public comments and posts. Still, there are issues: Some point to the lawsuit as the answer to a threat perceived by the corporate rightsholders re: the scope or quality of Axanar as crossing the line (at least as has been promised)—but the legal issues, if that broad, would point to shutting down everyone. Some guess this is merely the first salvo against the biggest budget of fan films, and that either the owners enforce their property or they lose it—no middle ground. I hope there's no later, broader action—but, as I have always suspected, this is definitely not a typical mass Cease & Desist or broad-brush campaign (this legal action with outside attorneys is reportedly a second step from the owners after sending Axanar an earlier C&D, despite some direct contact). This is a step up: We've already seen the post-"Viacom divorce" split franchise parents actually act together for once in the lawsuit filing, making the "series or movie?" question moot on this. We'll just have to see where this goes.

I hope it goes quickly.... but as corporations, CBS and Paramount will be notoriously slow to offer any more details that would amount to "fighting it in the press"—although there have been follow-up statements. So we are going to be reduced to reading between the lines, and retconning for past clues and quotes, and a mostly one-sided "he said/they didn't" ... so far. The Intertubes were pretty hot the first day... and there are obviously a *ton* of Axanar donors and supporters out there who are not taking kindly to the action. But I have to know this is not 1996, and the big boxes are not blind to that blowback and the potential impact on fandom—and mainstream PR buzz— with a film and series enroute (especially the latter). Thus, the stakes go higher.  There were quick catcalls against big bad CBS, and hoots over the modern nature of franchise ownership vs. fans served after 50 years ... but within a couple days even some online observers started to look at both sides: the immediate hashtag #IStandWithAxanar has now been met with #IStandWithCBS a couple days later... and a host of memes that do not see the production as a martyr, in part in reaction to varied takes on Axanar's public business plan online. And beyond all that, don't make the mistake of thinking that all the world—even all fandom—hangs out on Facebook and blogs 24/7.


As observers, it's also a time to be mindful of who's words we are reading: Who are legitimate journalists versus wannabe bloggers on this, as the "media reports" come out. But it sure has gotten fandom talking—even the mainstream and trade media. And as my buddy John Champion has Facebooked after New Year's Day:  "Congratulations to the 87% of people I follow who have all become experts in the intricacies of federal copyright law in the last four days!"


There's a maxim I learned real early in Hollywood and the Trek business for whenever you try to push the envelope: Just don't do anything to make anyone say "no." A second would be: Don't make anyone ask their lawyer. The fan films exist at all due to the tangle of the legal "divorce" agreements, Paramount and CBS as Hollywood union/guild signatories, etc. … and yet simultaneously their acknowledged obvious value in the pop-culture conversation, especially in a fallow, non-series time. (FREE PROMO! How many tentpole-wannabes would kill for that?)

This is the last way anyone wanted to kick off the big 50th Trek anniversary year, with a movie and streaming series both on the way for summer and then spring—no matter what you may think of them now, sight unseen. So let's hope this gets settled quickly, quietly, and with as little damage to either fandom creativity or the corporate brand as possible.

I've said for a long time that the coming of new Trek weekly adventures, especially, may be what takes a lot of the air out of the fan-film balloon of the last decade, just from the lack of newly diverted attention and dollars among the masses—without "CBS & Para" having done a thing. It's just human nature... even by fans.

I do know one thing. That filing and the frou-frou sure put me behind on my writing during the mid-holiday "dead week."

And you can bet this will be a deep-dive topic at our Portal 47 Ask Dr. Trek Roundtable in January!

The new Star Trek stamps: THEY didn't need a petition!

The news today about the four Star Trek stamps for the 50th anniversary next year is welcome, fun news. I love the crisp look by designers The Heads of State, though with a definite Prime TOS  tilt to them… which is, after all, appropriate for the 1966 anniversary. I didn't see a first day of issue listed anywhere, yet, but… Sept. 8, anyone?

And somehow, it is SO perfect that the sight of beaming, a Vulcan salute, the Big E and the delta shield patch with warp stars … should all be emblazoned with FOREVER in all caps.

(Yes, I know that the unending label is about the postage rate. Still,  it's awesome.)




We've come a long way since the USPS finally recognized Star Trek with a stamp, albeit through the backdoor via the 1960s edition of the "Celebrate the Century" millenium-looking decade by decade special stamp sheets, in 1999 (at right). It was a hoot to deal with helping announce the release of that issue in the old Communicator as the official source. Of course, nowadays the Postral Service is hip to giving pop-culturists (and promotion-cooperative media) exactly the nostalgia they crave on a dwindling communication art form.

What's almost forgotten now is that  Bill Kraft, a stamp collector from  Sauk Rapids, Minn., led a lonely, 17-year petition campaign for a Star Trek stamp all through the '70s, '80s and into the '90s to help that along—i.e., on paper with stamps!—way before The Big Bang Theory and the geek revolution made it mainstream. As both a Trek fan and a stamp collector, *I* was a party to that petition as well… and I'm so glad Bill shared the celebrity support letters and the saga of that effort in his book, Maybe We Should Get God to Write a Letter…. still available on Amazon.

How fitting that when news broke about the new bright and shiny pop-art Trek stamps for 2016, I got this short email from Bill about the story:

"I'm assuming it is in conjunction with Trek's 50th anniversary. I didn't even have to campaign this time."

We do still have our Star Trek campaigns to wage, Bill. It's just that commemorative stamps are not one of them! 

"It All Started With a Big... Borg?"

Did today's Geek Revolution really all stem from Locutus and "Fire!"?



This was my most recent guest blog over at startrek.com, on June 20 — (with new mashup art!) and I just wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to see it. It elaborates on a thread I got into on a podcast brainstorm recently... and really stuck with me.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

All right— I have a theory to propose. See what you think. It’s pretty deep, so hang with me:

Ahem.

For the current “geek revolution” that permeates our culture and brought all things “genre” to the mainstream of America ….

... we can thank Next Generation showrunner Michael Piller. And his insecurities.

Yep, I think it was the late, great executive producer of TNG (left) who set in motion events that led to all the fan-love that’s sweeping the country (and a lot of corporate board rooms to boot).  After the last round of CBS’s incredible TNG Blu-ray remasters and their Fathom Events theater showcase, well… my mind started to put 2 and 2 together one night while I was yakking away as a guest on a Trek podcast.

And it hit me like a ton of thermoconcrete. Here, just follow along:

It’s obvious that we live amidst a “Geeks Rule the World” vibe these days, right? For a lot of us over a certain age, it’s incredible that Star Trek fans and every other nerd nirvanist of all ages are allowed—nay, encouraged—to wear their con badge of honor openly, their heart on their sleeve, as it were…in full uncloseted view of everyone! The “geek girl” explosion, the cool-kids cosplay club… football Trekkies... the designers of cell phones, iPads, even a Vulcan-loving President —yep, it’s an amazing time, when you think about it.

What lit the fuse on such an explosion? Well, network TV can play a big role in changing the culture, reaching millions easily and putting new memes and ideas into play almost overnight —and there’s the clue. We have more than anecdotal evidence of this, of course: What better old-guard metric to check than your friendly A.C. Nielsens, the same TV audience ratings that ironically once doomed the original Star Trek (using, by the way, only raw numbers, not targeted demographics). Yes, check out the runaway No. 1 comedy on the list for forever, and—duh— you’ll come up with The Big Bang Theory. (For that matter, you could also check out the top syndicated-rerun package in every local TV market, and just about get the same answer. TBBT rules.)

Sheldon and Leonard’s excellent adventures (with constant Trek references and guest stars in the mix) have been a hit ever since their debut, and come from the great comedy bloodline of creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. But there are never guarantees in show biz, and TV series are an expensive gamble for a network —which is why few survive the process to be written, green-lit, filmed as a pilot episode, and then picked up to be risked in a high-pressure prime-time slot to deliver ratings and pay back the investment, with dividends. Now, what might have helped convinced CBS to take such a chance on an offbeat premise back in the spring of 2007?

(Okay, stay with me— it’s about to get thick and fast:)

I remember it well: 2007 was the year that everything melted down at San Diego Comic-Con, the granddaddy of what we now know as the new generation of megacons . This and every other “comic con” are hardly about just comics, writers and artists anymore, right?  It’s the stars who have the magnetism, and those tens of thousands of fans who swelled attendance numbers in the Aughts were there because of stars brought in by Hollywood—the Hollywood  that had begun to put those blockbusters on the big screens in a big way never seen before. The “day trip” vibe down to San Diego, for one thing, and the fertile audience of hard-core fantasy, sci-fi and comics fans just ripe to test-market: it was too much for studios to resist, and the mutual love affair bloomed big-time. That shockwave of numbers and the pop-culture headlines couldn’t help but put an obvious “new” hot audience on the radar of any network savvy enough to jump on it in a smart way.

But what had happened to Hollywood in the first place, going all-out on summer blockbusters and epic franchise flicks? I mean, comics-borne movies and fantasy epics have always been around, but this many? And with this attitude? And with this much respect—usually!—for the source material? (Oh, and cue the return of even the Star Wars saga by the late 1990s.) And—why the merger of studios and comics lines landing front-page in the Wall Street Journal as well as Variety?

Probably, in turn, because the small screen just couldn’t hold it all anymore. Yes, in many ways those big genre movies of the Nineties and Aughts were a no-brainer after all the sci-fi, swords and superheroes making inroads on network TV—like Buffy, Angel, Firefly… Lois and Clark, that begat Smallville … not to mention X-Files and the new quirk of humorous paranoia, plus Voyager and Enterprise, of course. It was also a time when, with the coming of CSI and all it inspired, a typical police procedural drama suddenly had more CGI “real science” visual effects each week than any ol’ space opera ever dreamed of.

The Big 4 networks, in turn, were just passing along the spillover from the genre explosion they saw on lower-risk cable nets, and even non-network syndication—like Babylon 5, Hercules, Xena, Farscape, Andromeda: Where did they and the wanna-bes suddenly come from? In fact, where the heck did syndication come up with anything but talk shows and game shows, anyway ?

You got it—you can “blame” it all on the riskiest gamble of all, The Next Generation (with Deep Space Nine the original second-wave series). As executive producer Rick Berman has noted, the TV world of 1986 gave TNG little chance to survive its triple knock as sci-fi, as a sequel and as a syndicated show.  The first two seasons were rocky—but eventually the show not only settled, but skyrocketed in quality and viewers ... and did, indeed, set off that sci-fi boom of the Nineties. All of which, of course, became competition for the Trek franchise itself.

So where did TNG’s turnaround occur? Remember—the show was budgeted to last seven years, yes, but a full yet mediocre run would never have sparked a revolution in anyone’s entertainment universe. In the long run, we can all pretty much agree it was that amazing, rags-to-riches third season when Piller came aboard —with “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” “Sins of the Father,” “The Offspring,” “The Defector,” “The Price,” “Hollow Pursuits,” “Captain’s Holiday”… But even with that list, we know what really put TNG on the map with the masses in one fell swoop.

That amazing cliffhanger, “The Best of Both Worlds,” the Borgification of Picard… Riker’s one word, “Fire!”… and then a blackout, a slamming music cue, and the simple but excruciating words “To Be Continued."

That epic moment, borne of head writer Piller’s angst about returning to the series or not, was his way of painting the conclusion writer into a horrible corner—before he knew that writer would be himself, after all.  

Of course, you could argue there’d be no TNG at all without the original Star Trek… and no Star Trek without Gene Roddenberry’s inspiration from The Twilight Zone, Have Gun Will Travel and Forbidden Planet, for starters. Yes, you could take this back even further, if you wanted.

But for now, I like this cause and effect. Without Michael, Locutus and “The Best of Both Worlds”… there’d be no Evil Wil Wheaton,  snark, and the verbification of “cosplay.”  We owe today’s sweeping freedom of geek pride to a Borg wash-out and a last-minute red laser unit.

I mean, isn’t it obvious to you?

Trekland on pods: Doomsday, McCoy, and the Tour

Whoa—now it's the last TWO months that have been a blur...

But one thing that's easy to do no matter how intense the "day job" gets is a friendly little blog interview when Trek is the subject... and Trekland, too.

Shame on me, for I've been remiss in sharing when some of the best Trek and sci-fi podcasts have been good to have me on ... at times with Teras Cassidy of Geek Nation Tours and our second annual Hollywood2Vegas Trek film site tour just before the Creation Vegas con. It's been a flurry.

In all of these we talk about not just the new Trek Tour for 2013, but also what's going on in Trek at large—according to what the hosts bounce off us—and I even wax poetic about esotrekica (yes, that is now a word). Because we turned over another generation in fandom the past couple years, in case you didn't know. In fact, you may have been part of the turnover (okay, I'll stop talking about you, now).

Of course, if you're already a fan or subscriber of these fine pods, you know this already—and if you're not much of a podcast downloader yet, here's your entree. They make a great way to spend a jog or a long commute or an interminable airflight. The hot air in mine alone is enough to start a balloon ride with.

Trekland got even more global than the Internet when UK-based Colin HIggins at Trek News & VIews over trek.fm had me on just today in Ep. 66 to talk about my fave "The Doomsday Machine" with Lou Costanza of The Lou Trek Show, plus explain how I came to be wearing McCoy garb in Georgia last month, and saying things like "Well, it's damn peculiar, Jim." And other Trekland stuff.

Then, Teras joined me to be grilled by Terilynn and "@Gettysburg7" NIck re: a lot of Trekness on their G&T Show for my beardless McCoy experience, the JJ "defection" to Star Wars (whoooo cares?) ... plus the Tour—and even a shoutout to 1701 Pennsylvania Ave on YouTube (you're welcome, Pony and Ralph!) ... Steve & Co. had us on as well for a new Tour Tart entry on the tasty menu at Sci-Fi DIner, Ep. 162B ... and Tom Cruz and Risa of STOked Radio over trekradio.net went way beyond the realm of Star Trek Online gaming for a trifecta of guests on Ep. 27 (the 41:30 mark; or download only here) where we went on about forgotten true fans, the upside of having no Trek TV (blossoming fandom), the future of the "next" Trek TV show, the fun of playing McCoy and of course the Tour—along with Teras, AND Mr. Enterprise-D Non-Profit Restoration & Museum himself, Huston Huddleston, and his project.

Which is all pretty cool considering I haven't even told YOU gentle readers about my Kingsland, GA experience as Bones... much less the Secret Project that's kept me from posting and vidchatting more with you here at TREKLAND... including today's Oscar guest post at startrek.com.

And more podcasts coming up quick ...

Suffer for your fandom? Check out my startrek.com guest post

We call it "Trekland, SUPPLEMENTAL" for a reason—that piece I do every few weeks over at our outpost at the "new" startrek.com.

Today I took a bummer event in our CON OF WRATH project, and turned it around into praise of past fan eras when the rock had to be pushed uphill. Go see for yourself. Just know that the title is SUPPOSED to be, indeed, "Suffer for your fandom?"

NOTE: In that post, the captions did not come through on the pics I submitted. So in case you were wondering what, why and when they are all about—check them out here:

From top (as seen on startrek.com):

 1974 local TV station protesters: outside KOCO-TV Ch. 5, Oklahoma City: 

1968 CalTech protestors at NBC-Burbank: Original TOS 3rd season "save" campaign:

1982 Houston Ultimate Fantasy "Con of Wrath" survivors: Shamrock Hilton's mass room: eviction:

2005 SAVE ENTERPRISE campaign rally badge, for protest outside Paramount main gate:

Happy birthday, Bill: What NOT to get The Shat (video)

At 81, he will keep running right through those years one by one right up until the moment he simply can't run (or drop-and-roll) any more.

Yes, it feels as if everyone the world over today is singing happy birthday greetings to our newest one-man roadshow star, William Shatner.

But that's about all they can do. I mean, what do you get The Man who has everything?

For one thing, he certainly doesn't need to get A LIFE:




By the way—and without any intent to imply a copyright holding on the NBC video involved— that 1986 SNL sketch had more to do with promoting the current image of the "fanboy" ... and away from the female-driven, zine-writing/con-throwing FEMALE fan icon that first emerged in Trek fandom from the 70s. …

..and that—pssst!—never really ever went away!

So, today's true birthday gift to us all is that the old pizza-faced basement-dweller meme has morphed back into:
—... the Geek Revolution
—… the Geek Girl "movement" (though she's always been there)
—… and The Big Bang Theory being viewable on three or four channels every day, laughing all the way to the bank.

MIdweek catchup: Wet, wacky WonderCon

Small crowd here...but Treklanders FILLED it later.

Despite the torrential rain and the even more horrendous parking horrors of what was Saturday WonderCon in Anaheim, the day was a good one overall in Trekland. And by that I mean it was pretty fan-centric.

But still—it was a bit of surreality even more than usual at a comic-con, with high school girls volleyball and cheerleader tournies each going on in adjacent areas at the center—and taking up all that parking! Officially, overflow was to go to Anaheim Angels' Stadium, miles away for a shuttle route—but that didn't help folks like @starfleetmom and @willymccauley who had to walk from car to shuttle bus stop, and then stand for 20, all in downpours—ie, no bus shelters. The T&T (text and twitter) warnings about parking alone helped make it insane for a lot of my regular posse to attend, including even CON of WRATH DP Neal Hallford who is ALWAYS there at the SoCal cons with me.

Just a thanks here to the 300+ that gave our "classroom" another all-but-SRO turnout as we delved into TNG's roots and some odd facts for the 25th anni year ... and what a great audience. Even the Browncoats on hand displayed their original colors, before brown.   A special thanks to those who signed on the website's news list—yay!—and those took advantage of my flea market, and /or made donations toward CON OF WRATH support.

Sadly, we were shorthanded on posse and I don't have any photos to share, aside from the empty "classroom" I shared on tweet and Facebook  earlier (above). But I do want to thank Christine, Willy, Bill and Conner for help with the signups, sales, and raffle drawing that I did on the fly, since I was not tabling here as we do at Comic-Con San Diego and Seattle's Emerald City. It was also great to meet twitterfan @wetodded, as well as Jullian Lawler from the booming EPCon in El Paso—where it looks like some news may be reported soon. Shhh!

So, all in all—and aside from an untech'ed, mystery DVD player/projector system that read audio but not video output (at 7 p.m. I was the first in the day to use it? Really?)—I can tell we all had a great time. Thanks again for the "hanging on every word" vibe, guys. And the laughs .... not to mention the "ahhhhhh" lines. What an empathetic group!  Seattle, San Diego, and even Vegas will have to go a ways to beat that.  BTW: Once again our informal straw polls show TNG slightly ahead of TOS in fan fave, and DS9 the biggest turnaround in support, much larger overall  than the hands  from those  few who simply "came in with it" as their first viewing.

And—if anyone DID come away with any snaps of me or the crowd, please ... can you share?

Because this is the only other shot I took Saturday ... at 1 a.m. .... across the street, approaching a lone car in the Disney south parking. In the "Wettiest Lot On Earth":

'Trekland, Supplemental"—and startrek.com is LIVE again

Almost lost amid the crush and glare of Vegas Trek headlines was the chance to declare this startling statement:

I'm back on startrek.com, and I'm in good company.

For a while there it was beginning to look like no one could ever utter those first words again. But yes: Check out my debut piece—musing about fandom today and tomorrow, as well as the franchise—in a series we artfully christened "Trekland, Supplemental." I guessed we pricked a nerve somehow; the commenters are hopping already, too.

The grand ol' site has been on autopilot since the staff—and yours truly as a consultant—was let go in a 300-some mass layoff by CBS Interactive late in 2007. Startrek.com, which existed initially in the early days of the World Wide Web as "Star Trek Continuum" on MSN, had been around in roughly the same format since 1996 til then.

The retooled, redesigned site with a New York-based CBS crew has been open for business again in beta version since July 15—did you catch the news at trekmovie and trekweb and trektoday, for starters? (BTW: As sometimes happens, I'll let the main Trek news like that streak by at TREKLAND until there's something past the press release to add—and here's one of those times.)

Now, there's a series of guest bloggers each taking their own slant. After Leonard Nimoy penned a debut greeting, Doug Drexler went next July 30, sharing some of his personal Drexfiles video shot around the lot and FX houses over the years; Propworx' new auction king Alec Peters had the week before. For my part, TLS will be taking an occasional look at Trek topics both backward and forward in focus.

ST.com and staff have always been under the domain of first Paramount, then CBS, via their online/interactive units. But as a rare legacy site for either entity—being about a classic, not current movie or prime time show—it's always been an odd fit.

Now, CBS's licensing side has the keys, and is back spreading news about both productions and products—and keeping much of the raw database alive; the forums boards never stopped. There's also a news feed being tapped from all three of those fan news sites, as well, plus original news too.

I miss having all things Star Trek not being in LA, where it was made, but it's good to have the body of that URL back with blood pumping again. There's already a lot up and running, so go over and take a look—and watch those beta-version baby steps grow to full stride once again.

Comic-Con time! And some reflections..

It's funny, this Comic-Con thing.

And I say that like I’m some battle-hardened San Diego veteran. Oh hell, maybe I am. But would only four real trips on the resume count as "veteran"? Or, do we count that one-day virgin visit way back in ... 2005? I mean, I'd meant to get down to San Diego for a lark during those crazy mid-Aughts years—but other cons, other conflicts got in the way. And after all, it was really just a "comic con," right?—and I was hardly ever a "comics guy"—even with the wild rumors that more and more Treklanders were turning up down there, just on general principle.

When Trekland itself turned upside down around here in 2005—end of magazine, end of producers, end of studio*—I suddenly found myself with a future in flux, an empty weekend in late July ... and old buds Neal and Jana in San Diego, ready to ease me over to Comic-Con consciousness. Just for a couple nights and a day visit, mind you, since I was a bit out of sorts. Just to see what the fuss was about.

Five years hence, my surviving standout memory of that day (at left) was actually watching those passionate Browncoats swarming all over their huge fan table—Firefly fandom, the only thing I've seen in my day that even comes close to the vibe and intensity of early Trek's. I felt young, as if the world was new... And the mojo began to flow again.

But my newfound bud Lee with his secret, fan-in-businessman's-clothing comic habit and longtime gang of CC suite crashers made it official when they dragged me down for a full-on stay the next year. I was now learning the ropes of this creature. I was hooked. And now I can talk tales from the trenches like the best of 'em, back to when you could still by a ticket on-site ... much less just park and walk in right there. There was none of this massive entrance/exit route room ballet choreography like Disneyland. Why, that first year I went, the attendance was only @ 80,000; now it's topped 120,000!

Well, Comic-Con was hardly a Trek con, either in the sacred fan style of things, or the oft-disdained pro set. Neither was it an old-fashioned lit-snob con. It was truly a trade show for pop culture—with ever more Hollywood studio folk and New York toy makers insanely swelling the ranks. I do love my Trek cons—viva Vegas, salute Starfest, take me on Shore Leave!—and I've seen the litcons hang in and make a comeback, too.

But this critter... well, forget the naming: Comic-Con San Diego—and various others around the country who share only the name and the intentions, nothing more—is very much a cross-genre beast of its own now. Oh sure—like Voyager 10 at the heart of V'Ger—there's still a revered core essence of the old 70s comics collectors' and artists' show in the center of it all that survives, even as all the other stuff that dwarfs it.

But the story of Comic-Con transcendence is very much the story of what's happened to fandom, and to mainstream tastes alike: it's all overlapping, all over the place. "Narrow-casting" may still be the key behind the 500-channel cableverse... or is it? These days, the lesson seems to be: Get out of your ruts!

And that may be the biggest and best Comic-Con lesson of all.
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Oh, and my 2010 Comic-Con highlights? Join me if you can:
—Selling and chatting all things Trekland in Autograph Alley at my times: 11:30a-1p Thursday, then 1-4p Sunday
—Crashing the Roddenberry party earlier/Geek Girls bash later, both Friday night—with Daryl and Curtis' Twilight Zone interactive anthro panel in-between at 8p
—Finally checking out Wil & Co.'s W00tstock phenom Thursday night, off-campus
—Eyeballing all the chotskis for the new startrek.com at the mobbed CBS booth (4129)
—And grabbing any and all peeps wherever we run smack into each other .... including Gary's lineup at LightSpeed Fine Arts, of course (3745).

Or you can always just twack me on Twitter, Tweklanders!
(See? Yes another Comic-Con first for yours truly).

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* = Communicator, Rick Berman Era, Viacom united—respectively

Forget soccer: make way for Con Moms!

This.... THIS is why Comic-Con is busting at the seams.

In the words of a mom in Middletown, Conn., commenting re: an online news story about a local convention:

"This is my third year taking my kids to the Con - now ages 8, 13, 15 and 18.

We look forward to it all year.

Just a word to parents. If - like me - you worry about the passive watching of cartoons, playing video games and reading endless manga/graphic novels - then take your kids to the Con! It all comes to life and they are having play battles with foam swords, meeting new people over games of apples to apples and Risk, taking photos of other kids dressed up as characters and meeting the artists who draw the webcomics they read online. It's really a positive environment. But bring some healthy snacks - I was mobbed by teens when I pulled out a bag of cherries of and blueberries.

See you there? "

Forget soccer moms. Or even geekgirls. Welcome to con moms!

I just happened to come across this little snippet of real life, this little snapshot of why Hollywood has swollen San Diego Comic-Con into a crowd bigger than the largest city of eight U.S. states ... why it's easy for Trek to be cool again and have a zillion genre cousins in the same boat: and why all things geek are mainstream (are we going to have to just break down and redefine "geek"?)

why new ones are popping up all over and the middling ones are booming too....

It's as homegrown and innocuous as can be. What's the big deal, you say?

The backstory: the recent ConnectiCon in Waterbury, Conn., elicited *gasp* a straight, on-the-nose news story in the straight, on-the-nose Republican-American newspaper's online pages. Time was when even your city's typical "alternative weekly" tabloid couldn't resist taking a few token pot-shots at the local Star Trek or comic or gaming con. And the con comm would be thrilled to have it.

Especially since all they'd ever get out of the local TV coverage is the token "get the face-painted alien geeks in costume" shots ... at 11 p.m. .... on SUNday. Thanks guys--insults, AND too late to Harness the Power of Mass Media in time and let it help get us anyone new in the door. And believe me--back in the day in Oklahoma City with SoonerCon and ThunderCon, I stood in those shoes all TOO often.

But see, pioneers get to be martyrs. Those who follow on today's trails just get to be real, and read about it. No one even realizes how easy it is to get both respect and normality. Or how impossible it was only a short while back.

But back to "Middletown Mom" and the Republic-American Dot Com: praise be to reporter Kristi Tousignant. It took a generation before all the Trek fanboys (and girls) got old enough to get pro credentials and WRITE the shows they wanted, dammit; looks like Kristi is in the same mold, on the news front.

ConnectiCon is a sort of modern-day Star Trek convention, targetting the wide-ranging sci-fi interests of today's younger generation. ...

"I really just enjoy seeing people with similar interests to myself in one building," ConnectiCon chairman Matt Daigle said. "It's like a vacation weekend."

Taking a step into the convention center Friday was like walking through the looking glass into Wonderland. People wearing fuzzy tails and ears walked past Hello Kitty characters and knights in full metal armor. There was Captain Jack Sparrow, Darth Vader, Queen Amidala and even a few scantily-clad Na'vi from "Avatar."

Hardly news to us—but that's not the point. It's hardly "news" to anyone—but now, it's a nice "color" feature story.

And then, that blessed comment from Middletown Mom. Actually, I know of several Con Moms who exist already. As do you, I'll bet.

Yep. Talk about the Next Generation? Well, there it sits.

PHOTO: Darlene Douty/ Republican-American
NOTE: News link may require free registration

Fan mail from some flounder?*

No wonder everything in Trekland, and MediaWorld in general, is so topsy-turvy these days.

I got a fan letter today. Not an email, or a tweet, or a Facebook "DM" ... but an honest to god letter. On paper. Using ink. With a stamp on it. And—bless my heart—a SASE** inside to boot.

If you think I am mocking, I am not. I think it's adorable. And very revealing: Steve H. is a con-going fan who is very much not ready to climb into his own empty photon torpedo tube just yet. He just wanted me to sign a photo card, and an old Official Fan Club Enterprise-E sketch postcard giveaway. I'm touched, and also mindful that once again the leading edge is only because of what's behind it: the other 98%.

See, Steve's little missive stopped me dead in my tracks. How could this be? Smack in the middle of our insanely socially-mediafied world of both words, and word-spreading? Okay, so he had actual physical materials to transmit, but still: It wasn't even in a postal Priority Mail, er, mailer.

It just goes to show that the human contact is still at the heart of fandom: Actor, creator, designer to fan. Communicator to fan. Fan to fan. Social media is incredible and can almost beat subspace radio today for speed... but some things the bits and bytes just can't do. And some folk still live by them. And.... we all need to take a breather sometimes and remember that. Not everyone, even the Xs and Ys, "do" EVERYthing. Every where.

Oh—and BTW Steve, I hope you don't mind me sharing everything (but the addresses) re: this. Somehow, I think you don't mind at all.


*"Fan mail from some flounder"—You're looking for help? See 2nd section of the link. (Sorry, there's no good YouTube, but we do have audio.) Bottom line: With 500-channel cable, there's no excuse not to know your Pop Culture Touchstones.
**"SASE": At one point, the lifeblood of fandom.

Egghead time for fandom: Take Daryl's survey!

If you have not had the pleasure of seeing Prof. Daryl Frazetti use Spock or Yoda or Bilbo to suddenly make anthropology understandable ... and even entertaining ... then you better keep an eyeball out for him at San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con, and a passle more. I owe him a lot for opening a few doors for me at those locales and more: my well-traveled "Between the Cracks" Trek show has seen a huge new audience this year, and I've had the chance to see a whole new swath of fandom of ever widening flavors. (At right: Seattle's Emerald City Comic-Con)

He's also on track to organize fellow educators who use genre franchises to get their point across, and do a lot more publishing in the same field as well.

SO: Until you get the treat of hearing Daryl in person, please help him out with this crusade—the use of all our genre faves in teaching—by taking this survey about your fan habit and outlook. (Word for the day: can you say "ethnographics"?)

It's confidential, of course, and just 23 questions, most of them multiple-choice. The results will all be collated to chart trends and demographics in his pop culture research. And what fan can resist telling the world just how it really is?

True-life believer defends her Trek luv

With all the Trek franchise frenzy focused on winning back the "young'uns"--i.e., anyone under 30, or born with digital video impulses in their blood—we sometime forget about other demographics of fandom that are just as vital.

Case in point: I really enjoyed this crossover post into Trekland... from an unexpected blogging realm, to be sure. Which, of course, only goes to show the Power of Gene:

To-wit: a young housewife/mother nominally blogs on family survival on "Under $1,000 a month"—but it's also spiced with her devout yet open-minded Christianity. Now, there's two adjectives I don't usually hear together, but this post reveals how the "silent majority" of believers like her is still alive and surviving. "Emily Under" offers a spirited defense of how her beliefs get along just fine, thank you, with her Luv of Trek.

Is it surprising this is an under-explored concept? Either the louder Trekfans are humanists like Gene himself and show anything from discomfort to outright disdain for theology ... or it's the believers of any faith who point to that humanism, as Gene wove into his secular Federation Starfleet, and ignore one or the other as irreconcilable.

But for once, one of the latter crowd queried "Emily" on this very topic--"Why does your family love Star Trek so much? It is not a Christian program and in fact it strongly promotes a lot of non-Christian ideas"— and it's her reply that caught my eye:

"...It is possible that our children may think the world of Star Trek is real, but we are planning on teaching them the difference between what is imagined and what is real. Star Trek is a great way to get them thinking about imaginary worlds, possibilities, new ways of thinking and other peoples' points of view. In our opinion, that is a good thing for children."

I tend to think the only young'uns in the bag for fandom these days are the actual kids of uberfans, the ones I see at Vegas and such: they are brought up in the "family." But Emily is an earnest but hardly hardcore Trekfan, so thanks to her her kids will likely join that majority of armchair fans, present and future, that love them some Starfleet in their own "silent majority" way....buy the products, see the movies, pile up the TV ratings—all in the privacy of their own home, and no further.

Since I caught this post, I've since realized that Emily is no longer blogging on her main family homemaking topic, though the archive is there. That's what makes this sidebar post--and the slice-of-nonfandom comments below it—all the more illuminating.

A healthy love of Trek while embracing religious views is a great thing and hardly inconceivable—and thank goodness that Emily, at least, got to spread the good news. About that. At least to a few.

Another clue: the "Trekkie" stigma finally beaming out?

The local CBS TV affiliate of Mobile, Ala./Pensacola, Fla., of all places, just posted online this brief webnote and slide video of a small Trek gathering at a local coffee shop, "Khan Con 2009." Kudos to both organizer Christie Barrington and to Chris Petrie of WKRG.

Don't just stop with the video of stills, above ... check out how the YOUNG reporter, likely doing webbie/tweetie reporting anyway, had a brief, respectfully cute text intro to the slides--plus Christie's contact info.

Just a simple little online note, but still... it's a sign. No sneers, no leers, no token goofball costumed shots.

If "mainstream media" is all online anyway, and the generations have changed ... we may FINALLY turn the corner on the Trekkie "freak" stigma once and for all, among the Old Media Gang—if that's all that's left. Right now, at least, here's where one local TV hub...in the SOUTH ... is, right now...

Trek's future: The big question

We touched on this before, but it's what on my mind now as we count down to JJ Trek.

There's less than a month to go and everyone around the world is excited, thanks to the global PR caravan ... and it looks more and more that this film and its *alleged* alternate timeline will blow people away.

But a lot of us are wondering what it will mean for Star Trek and our beloved franchise in the long term... what any single movie can do.

A boffo box office will sure give a shot in the arm to the franchise "vibe" in a general way, and shoot down the Trek naysayers who believed all those "dead franchise" headlines in 2005. That's truly important after all the "franchise fatigue" nonsense put out there when Enterprise was cancelled. But can it alone truly restore the froth, the numbers? Or will it take Star Trek's return to weekly television?

It's all about gaining newbies, a new generation of teens or at least the Millenials/Gen Y & Z bunch/ This movie, well-made, is in essence one big chance to throw it all against the wall and see what sticks. That's what so many of us are waiting to see: will ticket buyers remain just happy summer-action-flick-goers, or will they actually translate into new long-term fans in some way?

Let's check back after summer conventions, DVD release time and holiday shopping season and find out.

TV vs. Movie: Think about this

On the heels of my last musings about What Hath ST2009 Wrought... or will ... I thought I better get on the record with this now.

I've said it before and I'll be saying it again:

By any measure, whether this movie sinks or soars—and I'm betting on the latter!—I'm wondering when everyone will wake up and realize it is JUST a movie.

I don't mean the quality ... I mean the fact that's it just two hours of film. Taking two years to produce. And it's another two-year wait for just another two hours.

If this is the safest way back to public respect for Star Trek by the all-knowing mainstream media and the all-funding studio investors, then so be it.

But Star Trek will never again be how we now think and remember it—the fandom, the escalating excitement, the onrush of cool factor—until it returns to television. Not until we return to the days when there's one weekly adventure after another being constantly cranked out, not matter what the format or era or character set (assumig it's top-notch, of course) will we really return to the heady days of the '90s and early Aughts.

We need characters evolving, gadgets a-gleaming and canon deepening more than just two hours every two years.

Sometime around May 15 or 20, a week or two after this movie opens to roaring success, everyone will wake up and suddenly remember that fact.

We've Never Gone This Way Before

A whole new cast in the glare of the spotlight. Hollywood veterans. For a movie. Months in the making and countdown.

When you think about it, after 43 years of viewable Star Trek productions, we’re now in a place Where No One Has Gone Before.

Sure, Trek's certainly had its share of movies, new series casts and first-time producers. But I’m wondering what the “morning after” for this mix will be like, no matter how great the performance—and I don’t think most fans or industry watchers are following through that far.

First up, let's be straight: Like most every other watcher by now, I’m pretty convinced JJ’s new movie will pack a wallop, both with the box office and mainstream pop culture—and most hard-cores fans will be along for the ride.

But consider: All prior Trek movies have been “icing on the cake” for a TV show cast that earned them—both original and TNG. For good or bad, all the films to date have been adventures in search of achieving a big-screen bang with characters and actors we already knew. Almost no exposition—visual or verbal—was ever required.

This time, it’s a whole new ball game. Sure, we know the characters—unless the mostly confirmed plot format alters even that, and we only mostly know them. But for the new actors playing those old roles, well … let’s say I was curious when J.J.’s casting news dribbled out. Sure enough, his actors went of a true feature film line-up, not those open to a TV run follow-up.

Now consider II: For the most part, there is and was no established “Star Trek HQ” of creative staff and support folks yielding up this work. For the first time since Harve Bennett’s pre-TNG films, Star Trek ‘09 is proceeding like any other nomadic movie crew: certain departments are hired up and show up on-lot as needed, and then go away again, as needed. As is the nature of the biz, they close up shop and go on to the next project—cast and crew alike. The ongoing honchos involved don’t even all office at Paramount.

So, come 2009 and there will again be no full-time Star Trek “presence” at Paramount, save someone in Home Entertainment—with even Bad Robot concerned with a host of other projects too. No still-standing sets or offices to tour through or sneak peeks at.

Most of all, these actors will not have to depend on these roles—and they certainly aren’t in the middle of a seven-year TV run to promote. For now, anyway, while you’ll see their beaming faces all over at promo time next May, I’m betting they’ll be absent from standard convention slots fans are so accustomed to. They will likely love this movie—and the next ones—and their fans, and what they do for their careers… But as film actors they will likely be out doing just that, trekking the studio-meeting circuit rather than the con circuit.

I’m just sayin.’